Suffolk County, Massachusetts — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Suffolk County House of Correction (South Bay) and Suffolk County Jail (Nashua Street)

Operated bySuffolk County Sheriff's Office
Office address20 Bradston Street, Boston, MA 02118
Phone(617) 635-1000

Source: Suffolk County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

3/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✓Beds and daily population
✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✓PREA audits
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✗How to post bond — not published
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Suffolk County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byState appropriation through the Legislature
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins

Runs the jailYes — the sheriff has custody and control of the jail and house of correction (MGL ch. 126 § 16)
How the office is filledElected county sheriff, six-year term (MGL ch. 37 § 1)
County governmentAbolished. The sheriff and the house of correction are managed by the state Executive Office of Public Safety. There is no county board.

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Suffolk County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-09-20

The Judges

Not found

Suffolk County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-20

The Legislature, and in six counties a county board

The state pays for the jail. The elected sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe appropriation. Massachusetts abolished county government in eight of the fourteen counties — Berkshire, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Suffolk and Worcester — and their sheriffs and houses of correction are managed by the state Executive Office of Public Safety and funded by the Legislature. Six counties still function as governmental units: Barnstable (as Cape Cod Regional Government), Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, Norfolk and Plymouth.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected to a six-year term (MGL ch. 37 § 1) and has custody and control of the jail, the prisoners and the staff (MGL ch. 126 § 16). The Department of Public Health inspects the facilities and publishes the reports.
NoteMassachusetts abolished this county's government. There is no county board. The Legislature appropriates the jail's money and the state Executive Office of Public Safety manages the office.
The boardNo county government
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Massachusetts abolished this county's government. The sheriff and the house of correction are managed by the state Executive Office of Public Safety and funded by the Legislature; there is no county board.
The Sheriff's Department publishes the fullest population figures in the Commonwealth. The House of Correction page gives an average daily population of approximately 840 and traces the count from 832 at its opening in 1991 to a peak of 1,900 in 2000. The Nashua Street jail page records approximately 700 people held pre-trial, in 453 cells containing 654 beds.
It publishes the Prison Rape Elimination Act notice in English and Spanish together with an explanation of the Act.
Its own published facts state that both facilities are audited several times a year by the Department of Correction, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Public Health. None of those audits is linked.
The whole site was read. The checks recorded as no here are absences on the site, not pages that could not be reached.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Suffolk County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected, to a six-year term. In eight counties there is no county board to elect at all.

Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered